


Magic in a Bard's Song

by transdavenport



Series: Davenport Week Fics [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Post-Episode: e067-069 Story and Song Parts 1-3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 10:38:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12252648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transdavenport/pseuds/transdavenport
Summary: Angus never thought he'd hear music in the voidfish's chamber again. But there are still musicians on the moon.





	Magic in a Bard's Song

**Author's Note:**

> So this work was written (late) for Day 1 of Davenport week over at davenportweek.tumblr.com. The theme was Illusions!

It was two nights after the Hunger had left, and Angus McDonald couldn’t sleep. The moonbase seemed so empty now, but it was still home. He didn’t know how long he’d stay on the moon but it didn’t feel right to leave yet, not when there was still work to be done here. 

So tonight he got out of bed, put on the slippers he’d gotten from the Director for Candlenights, and wandered into the halls. 

He thought of the voidfish ( _ Fisher,  _ he thought to himself). They had vanished during the Day of Story and Song, and Angus found himself missing them. He made a decision: he would go to the voidfish’s chambers. He wanted to say good-bye, even if there was no one there to say good-bye to.

The elevator ride itself was anticlimactic and silent. But as soon as the doors slid open, music flooded in. It was just one voice  _ (a tenor) _ but it sounded full. Like the voices at the opera his parents brought him to once. Well-trained and efficient. The voice was muffled slightly by the door farther down, but only slightly. The words were in a language Angus couldn’t understand, something harsh, ( _ Maybe Dwarvish?) _  but the slow melody of the song smoothed it out into something more pleasant.

He waited for a moment, just listening, and then crept forward and peered through the crack in the door. Instead of the voidfish’s chambers he saw a huge mountain, and a path. Where the void fish’s tank would have been was a platform. The room was filled with white wooden chairs, but was otherwise nearly empty. And there was a glowing cave that Angus figured, based on the room he knew, could not lead anywhere. He could see the detail in the wooden chairs and the way the sunlight glinted off the keys of the piano. The swaying of the grass in a breeze that couldn’t be real. It was beautiful.

And then Angus saw Davenport. ( _ Gnomish. The song is in Gnomish. _ ) He stood in the center of the room, on top of the platform and with his back to the door. Angus’s mind jumped to a detail from the century he had heard, that Davenport offered a song to the voidfish in the Legato Conservatory. Angus didn’t know if this was that song, but it could be that voice. And this could be that conservatory. 

Angus had never seen someone sing like this. It felt like the words were coming from somewhere beyond his body. Like Davenport’s small frame couldn’t handle all the sound it could produce. ( _ Is Davenport a bard?)  _ Angus leaned in slightly, trying to get a better perspective on it all. But the door wasn’t fully closed and the shift in Angus’s weight sent it swinging open with a loud creak. 

Davenport went silent and spun around to face Angus. With the singing gone, the illusion shuddered and vanished. The beautiful presentation area was replaced with the broken husk of the voidfish’s tank and pile of broken glass in the corner that hadn’t yet been taken away.

“Angus? Wh-what are you doing down here?” Davenport 

“I could ask you the same thing, sir.” Angus replied. Davenport face shifted into one of reluctant amusement. “Sorry for interrupting you. I’ll just-“

“Angus, you’re fine. You- you just scared me.” Davenport dragged his hand across his face and sighed. “I have a feeling we’re both here for the same reason.” He gestured around to the piles of broken glass and metal.

Angus nodded and walked over to sit on the edge of the platform. “Did you ev- Were you ever down here much?” He couldn’t recall ever seeing Davenport in this room before. Which would’ve made sense if the Director had kept him away from here.

Davenport shook his head and sat down beside him. “Lucretia never brought me down. And I think it was more for Fisher’s sake than mine.”

“Sir,” Angus said, thinking for a moment. “I doubt that. The voidfish always seemed so happy to see the Reclaimers. I think they would’ve been happy to see you too.”

“No,” Davenport said, shaking his head. “I think it would have hurt Fisher to see what- what happened to me.” Side-by-side it wasn’t so obvious that Angus was nearly a foot taller than him.

“If it helps at all, I’m so glad that I got to meet the real you, sir,” Angus said. “Even if you were a real good mystery before.”

Davenport laughed. “You considered me a mystery?”

“Most definitely, sir,” Angus explained, speeding up in his enthusiasm. “Even though you couldn’t communicate, it was clear you were smart. And that Lucretia trusted you entirely, she even let you handle the relics, which you could resist the thrall of. When things calmed down, I had intended to try and detective together your story. But then the Hunger showed up and, well, I heard it explained to me.”

Davenport paused for a second, thinking. “It really is an amazing story. And it felt outlandish even when we were living it.”

“I- uh- while I understand it was a very difficult time and probably had lasting psychological effects on you and the rest of the crew, I really wish I had been there to see it.”

Angus watched a glint pass through Davenport’s eyes. “Well I can’t show you all of it, but I can show you some of the most beautiful.”

Davenport jumped back to his feet and cast something that Angus could recognize was illusion magic but was more powerful than any illusion spell he’d ever seen. ( _ So he was multi-classed? _ ) The room was suddenly just, different. They were standing in a thick forest of glowing mushrooms. Each mushroom was slightly different. It wasn’t just the same one over and over. Behind them was a small town, and what looked like a church. ( _ This must be Fungston. _ )

“You don’t have to do this for me, sir.” Angus asked, trying to take in every detail of the intricate illusion. “And didn’t you cast with bardic magic before?”

“I had like a hundred years to multiclass,” Davenport said, waving his hand. He turned to look Angus in the face, and he grinned. “Angus, I spent so long thinking of this trip and this mission as something unfortunate. Calculating ways to get my crew out of it safely. Now that it's over, let me show you some of the good parts.”

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda figure that the skills the IPRE learned during Stolen Century don't necessarily fit easily into the class system of D&D (since they were playing an entirely different system) so its hard to classify what Davenport is. If I had to explain my specific hc, I think he was an artificer who gained a bunch of levels as a wizard and then one or two as a bard.
> 
> Also thanks to Alex for beta-ing this!


End file.
